By Sean Cronin
Cheveley Park Stud's five-year-old distaffer Estrange (Night Of Thunder) suffered a pair of Group 1 reversals after annexing last term's G3 Lester Piggott Fillies' Stakes and G2 Lancashire Oaks, and she regained the winning habit with a decisive victory in this year's rescheduled renewal of the former contest at Carlisle.
“She is hardly blowing and doesn't even look like she has had a run really,” Chris Richardson said of last year's G1 Yorkshire Oaks and G1 British Champions Fillies & Mares runner-up. “She has done it very nicely and she has another year under her belt. She has done well physically and improved. We will probably go to York for the [G1] Yorkshire Oaks again. She is in Ireland, too, but it is a question of where the rain is. The Arc is the dream.”
Trainer David O'Meara added, “She looks like she's improved from four to five and she looked bigger and rangier when she was walking around the paddock. Minnie Hauk is back for more this year, as is Kalpana, so we'll need to have improved. On that showing she has and it will put her in the mix. If you don't bring your A-Game to these races you are not going to win, but she has not let us down. October is a long way off, but she's in [the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe]. The Lancashire Oaks worked well for her last year, but the [G1] Pretty Polly in Ireland would come under consideration, especially if the ground was slow over here.”
Bowling along behind a moderate tempo in fourth for the most part, the 8-11 favourite cruised into contention approaching the quarter-mile marker and was beyond recall once seizing control with 1 1/2 furlongs remaining to easily overpower Waardah (Postponed) by 1 1/2 lengths.
Ed Bethell trainee Coedana (King Of Change) fared best of the remaining quintet and finished 2 1/2 lengths adrift in third.
⭐️ A smooth win for Estrange in the G3 Lester Piggott Fillies' Stakes pic.twitter.com/zWw0nVtprW
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) May 30, 2026
Pedigree Notes
Estrange, a 425,000gns Tattersalls October Book 1 graduate, is the third of six foals out of the unraced Alienate (Oasis Dream), whose first was G2 Park Hill Stakes third Lmay (Frankel). She is also a half-sister to Listed Silver Tankard third Basalt (Pinatubo) and a yearling filly by Blue Point.
Alienate is a daughter of the stakes-placed Scuffle (Daylami) and thus kin to five black-type performers headed by G1 St Leger hero Logician (Frankel) and the multiple Grade III-winning GI E P Taylor Stakes runner-up Suffused (Champs Elysees).
Suffused is the dam of dual Group 3 winner Sunly (Night Of Thunder), while Scuffle is also the ancestress of dual GI Diana Stakes heroine Whitebeam (Caravaggio), and the winner hails from the family of Group 1-winning sire Cityscape (Selkirk) and Group 1-placed sire Bated Breath (Dansili).
Saturday, Carlisle, Britain
BETWAY LESTER PIGGOTT FILLIES' STAKES-G3, £125,000, Carlisle, 5-30, 4yo/up, f/m, 11f 39yT, 2:22.58, g/f.
1–ESTRANGE (IRE), 128, m, 5, by Night Of Thunder (Ire)
1st Dam: Alienate (GB), by Oasis Dream (GB)
2nd Dam: Scuffle (GB), by Daylami (Ire)
3rd Dam: Tantina, by Distant View
(425,000gns Ylg '22 TATOCT). O-Cheveley Park Stud; B-A Stroud, T Stewart & J Hanly; T-David O'Meara; J-Daniel Tudhope. £70,888. Lifetime Record: MG1SP-Eng, 8-5-2-0, $663,296. *1/2 to Lmay (Ire) (Frankel {GB}), GSP-Eng; and Basalt (Ire) (Pinatubo {Ire}), SP-Eng & Qa. Werk Nick Rating: A+. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree, or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Waardah (Ire), 128, f, 4, Postponed (Ire)–Neesaan (GB), by New Approach (Ire). O-Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum; B-Godolphin; T-Owen Burrows. £26,875.
3–Coedana (Ire), 128, f, 4, King Of Change (GB)–Acts Out Loud, by Mr. Greeley. 1ST GROUP BLACK TYPE. (€40,000 Ylg '23 GOFOR2). O-Julie Martin, David R Martin & Dan Hall; B-Highpark Bloodstock Ltd; T-Ed Bethell. £13,450.
Margins: 1HF, 2HF, 5. Odds: 0.73, 4.00, 12.00.
Also Ran: Naga (Fr), Crepe Suzette (Ire), Azaniya (Ire), Patagonia Girl (GB). Scratched: Sharpen (Ire).
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
